Had to place an asterick in the thread title due to it being a strike-shortened season and I'll be the first to admit, I'm not as geeked about this year's playoffs because of it. That being said, my RedWings are hot and rolling into the playoffs with a full head of steam. It's on!

The 1st round is always the best with so many good games available each and every day! That coupled with the IIHF World Championships going on currently in Finland/Sweden, and I'm finding it very hard to have time to do anything else than watch hockey.

Yep, those pesky Sharks are at it again, . Kinda' makes me Ok with the RedWings losing in the first round just so they don't have to face San Jose in the second & relive moments from past San Jose/Detroit playoff series ... Sharks sure are tough in the early rounds.

I see Raanta is doing well in the World Championships, as you would expect a Finnish goalie to do, . Finland has the #2 & #6 leading scorers as well. With only Latvia left to play, it's pretty safe to say you'll be moving into the quarterfinals for a Finland/USA rematch, eh? .

Congrats on the series win! Chicago will be a hard one to beat, but the Redwings are probably one of the few teams that can upset them in a playoff series. In any case, I hope the series between you guys and the Blackhawks goes to game 7 and that you take out couple of their key players in the process, so that if they do advance - the Sharks would actually have a chance to beat them if they themselves advance.

Yeah, I'm just getting ready to start watching the Latvia game. The Finnish top scorer is my team's junior and played for them in the SM-Liiga before being poached to the KHL. He has always been a really good passer, but now he has been able to actually score a lot of goals as well. I think he was the best scorer in the KHL playoffs this past season.

As the standing are at the moment, Finland will probably end up winning its conference since it only needs an overtime win against Latvia. Then Finland would face Slovakia, which it already won 2-0 in the second game of the championships. I'd much rather face Slovakia than USA, and I don't think Latvia will be able to win over Finland as they even managed to lose to Austria.